Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun

Mayor Rob Ford said the best part of how he feels right now is he is able to get up and into work early.

He seems to have his sense of humour back.

“I am not hungover anymore in the mornings,” he said with a laugh Thursday night. “I can get to the gym at 7 a.m. and then get into work early.”

This, he admits, was not the case when in the year or so before he finally came to the realization, “I was an alcoholic and had problems.”

He said he was in constant denial and is “embarrassed” about all of it.

“I was lying to myself and to everybody else,” he said. “And I didn’t think there was anything I could do to deal with it. I felt I was alone in the world. I felt there was nothing anybody could do to help me.”

Ford said most of his drinking “was when I was alone” and that he “humiliated” and sometimes “made a fool of myself.”

The drug use, which included crack cocaine, was done while under the influence of excessive alcohol.